MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVIST TO ACCEPT PLEA AGREEMENT

McWilliams Gives Up Hope For Federal Court

After his arrest on pot charges in October, medical marijuana activist
Steve McWilliams vowed to go to trial in federal court. He wanted the
chance to argue he had a right to grow marijuana under California's
Proposition 215, which allows ill people to grow pot.

McWilliams said yesterday he has given up that fight and will accept a plea
agreement offered by prosecutors.

He plans to plead guilty today to one felony charge and is expected to
admit that he grew 25 plants that drug enforcement agents uprooted from his
front yard.

"In my heart I wish we could go to court and say: 'Seat a jury. Let's have
a fair trial,' " McWilliams said. "More than anything we wanted to tell a
jury of our peers about our case. That simply can't happen now."

If McWilliams, 48, had gone to trial and had been convicted of two felony
charges, he would have faced five to 40 years in prison.

According to the proposed plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend no
more than six months in prison. McWilliams' lawyer said it's possible his
client won't serve any prison time at all.

"This is the best deal I've ever been offered by the government," said
David Zugman, a former federal defender turned private attorney. "It would
be crazy to reject it."

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the case yesterday or to explain
what prompted them to cut a deal.

McWilliams said he decided to accept the offer because it allows him to ask
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear his legal challenge to
medical marijuana prosecutions. Usually when a defendant agrees to plead
guilty, the government requires that all appeals be dropped. But in an
unusual concession to the defense, federal prosecutors will allow
McWilliams to continue his appeal.

McWilliams' guilty plea will come just days after the San Diego City
Council voted 6-3 to approve guidelines that allow ill people with their
doctor's approval to keep as much as one pound of marijuana to ease their
symptoms.

The guidelines were approved over the objections of Mayor Dick Murphy and
Police Chief David Bejarano after a seven-hour public hearing. More than 50
people testified on recommendations drawn up by the Medical Cannabis Task
Force.

McWilliams was one of the original task force members and was instrumental
in pushing for guidelines.

Despite the passage of such guidelines in San Diego and other cities, Drug
Enforcement Administration agents have vowed to arrest medical marijuana
providers in California, describing them as common drug dealers.

Agents began cracking down on cannabis clubs last year soon after the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled there is no medical defense against federal marijuana
charges.

Yet the DEA had already approved research at UCSD on the potential medical
benefits of marijuana. The first study will assess whether marijuana helps
patients with multiple sclerosis and with nerve damage associated with AIDS.

Magdalena Martinez, spokeswoman for the DEA's San Diego office, declined
yesterday to comment on McWilliams' expected plea.

McWilliams had hoped that if he went to trial, an outraged jury might
acquit him after hearing of the conflict between state and federal laws.

This tactic, known as "jury nullification," has been used by draft dodgers
and tax protesters to argue they should be acquitted because the laws under
which they were prosecuted are misguided.

In order to mount such a defense, McWilliams' attorney would have had to
call witnesses to testify that the pot was being grown by them, not
McWilliams, to treat their illnesses. But because of the Supreme Court
ruling, the federal judge was unlikely to allow such evidence. Also,
federal juries are instructed not to be swayed by their personal feelings
when considering a criminal matter.

One Oakland activist who took that gamble now faces up to 85 years in prison.

After a two-week trial, a federal jury convicted medical marijuana advocate
Edward Rosenthal of pot growing charges. He was portrayed as a drug
manufacturer and offered little, if any, defense.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wouldn't allow the defense to present
evidence that Rosenthal, 58, was acting as an agent of the city of
Oakland's medical marijuana program.

After the trial, several jurors said they would have acquitted Rosenthal if
they had known the city had licensed him to grow medical marijuana. Jurors
planned to send him a note of apology.